


Mom and Dad

by navyblueoveryou



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Spoilers, i just had to write about this scene, im sorry for this spoiler but
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:14:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24861394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navyblueoveryou/pseuds/navyblueoveryou
Summary: Dina and Ellie have to have a talk about what happened during the first night at the theatre. (This DOES contain a major plot line spoiler - so if you haven't played to this scene in the theatre, please don't read this.)
Relationships: Dina/Ellie (The Last of Us)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 265





	Mom and Dad

**Author's Note:**

> This contains a major plot line spoiler! I ruined this one for myself when I was googling how old Dina was (btw, no one actually knows - I'll just assume she's like 20-21.)

_If I ever were to lose you, I'd surely lose myself..._

Ellie jolted herself awake, hunched over and alone in the front row of the theatre. How long had she been out? Like second nature, she immediately patted herself down to make sure she wasn't injured or missing anything. The straps of her backpack were still there. She could feel the cool barrels of her guns against her skin on multiple parts of her body. She turned to look out into the empty auditorium. Where was Dina?

"D?" she called out, uncomfortable when she realized just how meek her voice sounded. Like she was 14 again and she'd lost sight of Joel. The only difference now was a few years and the gut-wrenching reality that she would have to face - she _had_ lost sight of Joel. Permanently.

Pushing to her feet, she jumped when her foot knocked the guitar beside her and the strings vibrated in a haunting moan. Shit. She'd forgotten all about it. It was a beautiful guitar - if they were headed back to Jackson, maybe she'd go digging around for a strap to sling it over her shoulder for the ride home. But they were a long way away from Wyoming, and an even longer way away from heading back there.

...Maybe she'd come back to it later. 

Wandering up the aisle that divided the sea of seats, Ellie was careful to ensure her footfalls were quiet and calculated. She _had_ secured the place before falling asleep, hadn't she? Ellie liked to think Dina could handle herself if trouble came knocking, but with recent developments, she was anxiously eager to ensure the safety of her partner. Now, it was just a matter of finding her in this abandoned theatre. 

In the lobby, Ellie stood still, looking up into the pavilion level overhead with ears open. She didn't immediately notice anything out of place, but did notice the couch that she had left Dina on the night before was now vacant. Her heart thudded heavily against the confines of her chest. Where was Dina?

Realistically, was it stupid to assume she would have just stayed on that couch until Ellie returned to her? Yes. The two of them were already plenty stubborn to begin with, and with their blowout the night before, it would be of no surprise to anyone if Dina had stormed off in a fury.  
_Hot and  hotheaded. You sure know how to pick 'em, Williams. _  
"Dina?" she tried calling out again. No response. 

Ellie headed for the stairs, once again cautious about how loudly she was stepping. The door they had come through was still jammed with the chair that Ellie herself had shoved through the handles when they arrived - nothing _looked_ out of place, but she had learned her fair share of lessons about making assumptions.

The door to the upstairs office was ajar, and as she got closer, Ellie could hear the scrambled radio noise that emitted through the opening, along with a stream of light. She slowly eased it open, peeking inside until she saw Dina, puking her guts up into a bin.  
She frowned. For the few hours she was asleep, she'd forgotten all about the pregnancy thing. But...who the hell was Ellie to be angry with her? Dina had confessed her fear that she was with child, and Ellie had responded explosively. She'd called that beautiful soul a burden. Ellie's heart sank at the thought. What the hell was wrong with her? 

Once Dina's head was out of the trash, she looked up from her spot on the floor and smiled meekly. The bags under her eyes suggested she hadn't slept, and if she had, it wasn't enough to be considered proper rest. "Hey, you."

Ellie's heart was breaking by the second. How could Dina still be so receptive, so warm? Yes, it had been a stressful day from beginning to end. Yes, their confessions were both met with accusatory denial. But Dina had come to her senses, and the fire in her eyes had extinguished when she remembered Ellie's story about the chemical burn. Ellie, on the other hand, hadn't been quite so receptive.

But admittedly, Dina's confession weighed heavily on their mission. On Ellie's mission, really. She couldn't, in good conscience, drag a pregnant woman around the entirety of Seattle, expecting her to travel for miles and miles on foot every single day now that they'd lost Shimmer. The weather was weird and inclement, constantly dreary and raining. Dina was more prone to falling ill now, wasn't she? And what could something as minor as a cold or a flu do to her newly impacted immune system? Ellie couldn't risk Dina's safety, or the safety of the life growing inside of her. The twinge of jealousy knowing that the baby obviously wasn't hers still burned somewhere deep within her. Jesse. It had to be Jesse.

"Hey," Ellie responded, stepping inside and shutting the door behind her. Dina had sprawled out a map on the floor, along with the now functional radio that Ellie hadn't had the patience to tinker with when she had originally found it. She could hear rumblings of chatter from the WLF as they spoke in code about their locations and watch points. "Whatcha got there?"

Dina sighed and then chuckled, tossing the marker onto the map. "I couldn't sleep so I came up here and fixed up the radio." She looked up at Ellie with those doe eyes. "Thought I'd make myself useful and map out the WLF's locations."

Ellie was sinking further and further into that feeling of grief. She could feel the bite of tears at the corners of her eyes. She'd been so hard on Dina, but this news had been hard on her. But...the reality? It was likely just as hard on both of them. And she hadn't given Dina the proper space to discuss it.  
Maybe she should have. Maybe she still could.

Ellie set her backpack down before slowly and cautiously lowering herself to the ground beside Dina, offering her the time to push Ellie away if she wanted to. But she didn't, and instead put a loving hand on Ellie's knee. The hardened of the two slipped an arm around Dina's back, using her thumb to trace slow circles against the skin beneath her shirt. This close, the raven haired woman's perfume permeated the space and left Ellie feeling weak. She loved her. So fucking much that it would surely kill her.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "About everything."

Dina gave Ellie's knee a gentle pat. "Not your fault. I told you it's not yours."

While Dina tried to laugh it off, Ellie shook her head, her face glazed over in stoic seriousness. "No," she said firmly. "This isn't a joke, D. I shouldn't have said what I said last night. You aren't a burden. You'll never be a burden to me."

Dina sat in silence for a moment, letting the words sink in. She knew that Ellie was sorry - it was heavy in the tone of her voice. The guilt alone made the air feel weighted.

"I want you to get what you're seeking," she finally said. "But I don't think that I'm the right one to do this with you."

Ellie simply nodded dejectedly. She knew that. She'd known that since the moment those words had come out of Dina's mouth last night. But she couldn't just leave Dina here, in the theatre by herself. They'd escaped by the skin of their teeth before finding shelter here. Dina was strong, but at the moment, she wasn't her strongest. Morning sickness was wrecking her, exhausting her. Ellie would need to find food, proper food, for her to eat. She couldn't survive on trail mix and power bars now. 

"I'm sorry that I brought you out here."

That was the only thing that Ellie could think to say. She wasn't going to continue blaming Dina as she had before. She loved this woman, regardless of the situation. She needed to be supportive - Ellie was all Dina had right now.

"You didn't bring me out here," Dina said, stopping Ellie's pity train in it's tracks. "I came willingly. So I could be with you. And no one was going to stop me."

Ellie looked to her lap and tinkered with her fingertips anxiously. 

"Look - I know this sounds shitty, but I'm going to say it anyway." Dina took a deep, slow breath. "I don't want to raise this baby with Jesse."

They looked at one another. If Dina wasn't going to raise the baby with Jesse, who was surely the father, then who...?

"Don't act so surprised," she asserted. Her fingers interlaced with Ellie's calloused ones. There were those big brown doe eyes staring into Ellie's. "I wanna...raise the baby with you."

Ellie's heart stopped for a second. Or two. Maybe an entire thirty. Was she still breathing...?

Dina wanted to raise the baby with _her?_

"...Me?" was all Ellie could manage to sputter out. "You wanna raise a baby...with...me."

Ellie's tone suggested the idea was a terrible one - she was nineteen. Plenty of people in Jackson still considered Ellie a baby yet. She didn't agree with them, of course - but how would their town react? There were no gay parents in Jackson. The reaction to their kiss had already sent the town big mouths into a fucking whirlwind. Imagine the drama of Dina, pregnant by Jesse, raising the child with Jesse's close friend who just happened to be a lesbian. 

For fuck's sake, it would never end. That child would be in a mess of misery for the entirety of it's time living there.

"We'll get our farm," Dina said dreamily. "Outside of Jackson. Just you and me and..." she hesitated, her hand falling against her stomach. "Well...baby."

What was parenthood? Ellie didn't have parents. The only thing left of her mother was a letter, still carefully tucked away in a secret pocket of her backpack. Never knew much about her father. She'd been watched over by Marlene for a while, the queen of the Fireflies. But she'd made promises that she couldn't keep, according to Joel, who had then somehow become her permanent guardian. Tess had been there for Ellie momentarily, at least until her grizzly demise. So how could Ellie be a parent when she didn't even know what a parent was?

Dina didn't have parents, either. Her sister had been killed and she'd somehow landed in Jackson like the rest of them. How the hell were two people, without parents, going to be parents?

"Don't think Jesse would be too fond of that idea," Ellie mumbled.

She wasn't lying. The way he'd reacted after finding them together? Forget it. He'd have Ellie's head on a fucking stake, parading it through town.

"I don't give a fuck about what Jesse thinks," Dina snapped back, pushing to her feet. She immediately began pacing. "You've loved me harder in a few weeks than he ever has in all the years that I've known him." When she turned back to Ellie, her eyes were welling with tears, her voice cracking. "I don't want to be with him, El. I want to be with you."

Ellie pushed to her feet slowly, moving over to Dina and taking her in her fragile state into a strong embrace. And as Dina let the emotions go, tears soaking Ellie's shirt, the taller of the two just held her, stroking her hair and placing gentle kisses against her head. 

_"If I ever were to lose you, I'd surely lose myself..."_ Ellie sang softly. _"Everything I have found here, I've not found by myself..."_

"Oh, Ellie," Dina whimpered between sobs, clinging tighter to that strong body. "I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry."

Ellie pulled away just enough to hold Dina's face in her hands, gazing into those eyes now swollen and red from crying. It hurt Ellie, but she needed to be strong now. For Dina.

"Hey," she said gently to keep Dina's attention. _"I believe, and I believe 'cause I can see our future days..."_ Ellie's thumb grazed over Dina's cheek, brushing away the tears as she sang. _"...Days of you and me."_

They would figure this out. Because nothing would kill Ellie the way that losing Dina would.


End file.
